City Theatre - New York City (Cinema Treasures)
  Original Exterior
  City Theatre - New York Ctiy (photo: Berenice Abbott, 1938)
  Modernized Exterior (1938)
Click on images to enlarge
City Theatre

114 East 14th Street at Irving Place
New York, N.Y. 10003





The City Theatre was one of the leading vaudeville and movies houses on 14th Street, due in part to its proximity to Broadway and Union Square. Built by William Fox, it opened on April 18, 1910, with a stage production of Florenz Ziegfeld’s “Miss Innocence,” starring Anna Held. The City was reported to have 2,267 seats distributed in the orchestra, boxes, two balconies and uppermost gallery.

This was the first theatre designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb (1871–1942), who would become one of the foremost designers of theatres and cinemas in the 20th century. Patrons entered the theatre on the south side of 14th Street, opposite Irving Place, and proceeded through the narrow outer lobby to the larger lobby and auditorium that was parallel to 13th Street. Lamb decorated the interior in the French Renaissance style, with walls wainscoted in scagliola marble and topped with rose damask, and a proscenium framed with richly molded plaster. On the ceiling was a mural by Arthur Brounet.

Over the years, the City Theatre declined in popularity as the shopping district moved uptown, and after Fox built his more sumptuous 3,000-seat New Academy of Music, further east in the same block, that opened in 1927. In the late 1930s, the City was given a modernized front and marquee, and seating capacity was reduced to less than a thousand by closing off some of the balcony seating. Although it survived the WWII years, the City was an early victim of competition from television and was demolished in 1952.
     
M.P. Möller, Inc.
Hagerstown, Md. – Opus 2072 (1916)
Electro-pneumatic action
3 manuals, 23 stops, 21 ranks


The organ in the City Theatre was built in 1916 by M.P. Möller at a cost of $5,000. It was one of Möller's standard "theatre" models with three manuals and 21 ranks.
               
Great Organ (Manual II) – 61 notes (5" pressure)
8
   Open Diapason
61
4
   Octave
61
8
   Dulciana
61
4
   Flute Harmonique
61
8
   Concert Flute
61
        
               
Swell Organ (Manual III) – 61 notes, enclosed (5" pressure)
16
   Bourdon
61
8
   Viol d'Orchestre
61
8
   Open Diapason
61
8
   Aeoline
61
8
   Stopped Diapason
61
4
   Flute Traverso
61
8
   Salicional
61
8
   Clarinet
61
8
   Vox Celeste [TC]
49
     Tremulant  
               
Choir Organ (Manual I) – 61 notes, enclosed (5" pressure)
8
   Horn Flute
61
8
   Vox Humana
61
8
   Quintadena
61
     Tremulant
—
8
   Viol Aetheria
61
    
Cathedral Chimes
20 Notes
8
   Unda Maris [TC]
49
    
Harp
49 Notes
4
   Flute d'Amour
61
    
Sleigh Bells
20 Notes
               
Pedal Organ – 32 notes (5" pressure)
16
   Bourdon
44
8
   Flute [ext.]
—
16
   Lieblich Gedeckt
SW
        
               
Couplers
    Great to Pedal       Choir to Great 16', 8'  
    Swell to Pedal       Swell to Choir  
    Choir to Pedal       Great 4'  
    Swell to Great 16', 8', 4'          
               
Combinations
    None listed          
               
Pedal Movements
    Balanced Swell Pedal   Great to Pedal Reversible
    Balanced Choir Pedal    
    Grand Crescendo Pedal    
     
Sources:
     Cinema Treasures web site: http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/1326
     Junchen, David L. Encyclopedia of the American Theatre Organ, Vol. 1. Pasadena: Showcase Publications, 1985.
     Trupiano, Larry. Specification of a standard III/21 organ from Agreement (Sep. 17, 1915) for M.P. Möller organ, Op. 2027 (1915).

Illustration:
     Abbott, Berenice. Exterior (1938). New York Public Library Collection.